This chapter describes respondents within the participating hospitals. The data presented here are based on respondents' answers to survey questions about the hospital work area/unit where they spent most of their work time, their staff position, and their direct interaction with patients. In the tables presented in this chapter, respondents from hospitals that omitted one of these questions, or those who did not respond, are shown as missing in the tables and are excluded from total percentages.

Work Area/Unit

One-third of respondents (32 percent) selected "Other" as their work area, followed by "Medicine" (11 percent) and "Surgery" (9 percent) (Table 4-1). The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture uses generic categories for hospital work areas and units. Therefore, a large percentage of respondents chose the "Other" response option that allowed them to note their specific work area or unit. Participating hospitals were not asked to submit written or "other-specify" responses for any questions, so no data are available to further describe the respondents in the "Other" work area category.

Staff Position

More than one-third of respondents (35 percent) selected "Registered Nurse" or "Licensed Vocational Nurse/Licensed Practical Nurse (LVN/LPN)" as their staff position, followed by "Other" (21 percent) and "Technician (e.g., EKG, Lab, Radiology)" (11 percent) (Table 4-2). As with the work area/unit question, many respondents chose the "Other" response option, which allowed them to note their specific staff position, but no data are available to further describe the respondents in the "Other" staff position category.

Interaction With Patients

As shown in Table 4-3, most respondents (76 percent) indicated they had direct interaction with patients.